— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 4, 2021
Strong language advisory to the above video.
Never ask a question when you don’t know what the answer will be. The reason why, has been ascribed to a story being told by Abraham Lincoln about a case:
A man was accused of biting another man’s ear off during a saloon brawl.
His lawyer was cross-examining the prosecution’s star witness.
“So, Mr. Jones, the saloon was pretty dark, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was.”
“And things were pretty confused with all the fighting, weren’t they?”
“Yes, they were.”
“Mr. Jones, I put it to you that you did NOT actually see the defendant bite off the man’s ear. Am I correct?”
“Well, yes.”
At this point, the lawyer should have sat down. But no, he couldn’t let go.
“So, Mr. Jones, if you didn’t see him bite the ear off, why have you testified that he did it?”
“Because I saw him spit it out.”
Let’s see the video again:
Binger’s question to the witness was a variation of “why”. With the exact same devastating results as to why you never ask that question unless you know exactly what the answer is going to be. pic.twitter.com/tNS3BRS0Yy
— Viva Frei (@thevivafrei) November 5, 2021
This incident should be taught in law schools until the ending of the world as what not to do on questioning. I have never seen a prosecutor, and I have observed in trials quite a few inept prosecutions, destroy his own case in such a short period of time.
I’ve heard my cousin Vinny is shown in some classrooms to teach this very lesson.
https://youtu.be/KSuaVMjheNk
Hard lesson lol.
Wow, you’ve just got to hope that was the low point in his career.
“MCV” has several useful tips for good advocacy–seriously. It was used at a continuing legal education seminar I attended. The script writer deserves kudos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T24lHnB7N8
What I wouldn’t pay to see Vinny defending Kyle right about now…
It helps the director is a qualified lawyer. 😉 Wikipedia has him studying law at Cambridge.
Also bit of trivia I came across:
The director, an Englishman, was casually chatting with Joe Pesci and got confused by his Brooklyn-accented pronunciation of “youth”. After Pesci explained it, they both realized they were having a conversation that should be in the film. The famous “two yoots” conversation between Vinny and Judge Haller that resulted is practically verbatim what Pesci and the director said to each other.
Also something I’ve found thought-provoking…
Why do the most “accurate” depictions of a profession are typically comedy? I remember seeing a program on TV medical shows and numerous doctors & nurses interviewed stated that Scrubs was the most accurate TV show to medicine. (except stethoscopes are always backwards) I’ve heard the Wire is accurate to policing, but from my experience, “The Good Guys” (and a bit of Brooklyn 99) was closer to my experience.
Don’t even get me started on computers.
Even most of us non lawyers understand that rule.
“Why do the most “accurate” depictions of a profession are typically comedy?”
Hogan’s Heroes had the most accurate uniforms.
“Why do the most “accurate” depictions of a profession are typically comedy?“
Because real comedy depends upon the element of truth to be funny whereas most “serious” depictions of a given profession do not.
“Why do the most “accurate” depictions of a profession are typically comedy?”
Back in the 80’s my legal secretary’s husband was the staff shrink for a major city police department. I asked him what he thought was the most realistic cop show on TV. His answer? Barney Miller.
I asked him what he thought was the most realistic cop show on TV. His answer? Barney Miller.
IIRC, Barney Miller was recorded on videotape and almost all of the scenes were shot in a set designed to look like a cluttered office with an adjacent lockup. All but one of the characters was a plainclothes officer. The writers puckishly elected to staff their imaginary police precinct with three officers of indeterminate background, two Jews, a black, a Pole, a Puerto Rican, a Japanese (rare as hen’s teeth in NYC), but no Irish.
Truth, GregM.
Comedy has the modicum of truth totally lacking in 99% of everything that passes for big/social media news and Democrat policy positions.
I imagine, like me, one thing all cops would agree on is that no one can say, “Now, I’ve seen everything.”